Semiconducting materials find uses in many applications. For example, semiconducting materials can be used in electronic devices as processors formed on semiconductor wafers. As a further example, semiconducting materials can also be used to convert solar radiation into electrical energy through the photovoltaic effect.
For silicon-based photovoltaic cells, the silicon can be formed, for example, as an unsupported sheet or supported by forming the silicon on a substrate. Conventional methods for making unsupported and supported articles of semiconducting materials, such as silicon sheets, have several shortcomings.
Methods of making unsupported thin semiconducting material sheets, i.e., without an integral substrate, may be slow or wasteful of the semiconducting material feedstock. Bulk growth of semiconducting materials, such as, for example, single-crystal and polycrystalline silicon ingots, typically involve subsequent slicing of the ingot into thin sheets, leading to loss of material, e.g., approximately 50% kerf width from wire-sawing. Ribbon growth techniques overcome the loss of material due to slicing but may be slow, such as, for example, 1-2 cm/min for polycrystalline silicon ribbon growth technologies.
Supported semiconducting material sheets may be made less expensively, but the thin semiconducting material sheet is limited by the substrate on which it is made, and the substrate has to meet various process and application requirements, which may be conflicting.
Thus, there is a long-felt need in the industry for a method of making articles of a semiconducting material that may reduce material waste and/or increase the rate of production.